Struggles and Achievements of Andrew's 8 months

Andrew and Gracie have been home almost 8 months. He has changed in a lot of ways and in many areas he still has a long way to go ....

He has gained over 13 lbs and inches in his height. He has reached a level of body fat where no longer are all of his calories going into his muscles to make up for what he was lacking for so many years ( malnourished)- according to his neurologist. So I can relax a bit about his eating and making sure he is getting lots of calories. We are going to try to wean him off the bottles or attempt to move towards that. Things like thickening them, and actually putting some soggy food in them... and slowly move towards some self feeding. He loves to slurp the food that is squeezed out of his bottle into his hand or tray... Although for about 2 weeks now he has been spitting up lots of his food. We don't think he is sick at all... but more like he makes himself do this and often will try to slurp. I know it sounds yucky but I think he is showing us something positive. He is initiating something that he enjoys doing ( the slurping of his food ). Hopefully we can move to more appropriate slurping...but he hates all solid foods or even the experieince of introducing him to lollipops, syrup anything "normal" kids would love he hates so far because of the texture ... He definitely likes to be in control :)

Another favorite of his has been to play with his poop. He never did it before and has the last month or so :) This is another not so positive move into the right direction and one that is hard to change- unless you catch him at the moment he does it... which is usually when he is down for a nap. He also enjoys blowing his nose and making lots of snot come out- to you guessed it play with :) . I have thought he might have allergies and so we have tried a tactic of giving him benedryl at nite to dry his sinus up... bottle feeding combined with his high palate causes him to produce lots of mucos and so the sooner we can change that the better for him too... not sure on the when but we will make an effort this week to move towards that.

Now all of these nasty habits he has been doing the last month are actually ones that we detest but I also see it as a move towards him being able to discover . He was a blind child left alone in his crib for all 5 yrs and 2 months of his life- until we brought him home. He was not allowed to suck on his thumb or a pacifier ( germs they said ) and he had no toys or other stimuli. We bring him home and have allowed him to suck on things and be his developemental age of 6 months ( remember he could not even sit ) and now he is discovering all the wonderful things his body does ? He is also all over our house... he crawls mostly and will stand when he reaches something he wants to stand by. You can place him anywhere and he can find some of his favorite spots in seconds- like my computer chair, the cd player or the front entrance rug ( he loves to roll himself in it). He prefers not to be by himself and loves certain members of the family over others. He allows certain ones to feed him . He is beginning to listen to our no and we have been able to redirect some behaviors. He loves music, walking holding onto our hands and swimming or water.

We rarely see any of the auto aggressive behavior he did when he first came home. He sleeps soundly at nite- sometimes with the help of melatonin to get him to sleep but not always. He is a houdini of sorts and can get out of his seat belt , swing even a diaper pinned blanket sleeper... not sure how he does that but he is quite an artist. He laughs and is happiest in the afternoon until his bedtime. Mornings he is cranky and does not like to get up early. He loves to go under and in things. We have a big floor rug in our sunroom and he would try to crawl under it if we let him. He is still loud and difficult at times to take out. When he cooperates he is fine but if not someone always removes him outside or takes him home. He is not easily social with our activities...meaning we usually don't take him to church or we plan for someone to be able to drive him home if we are out. The kids are great about it and sort of go with the flow...never showing resentment or anger for his behaviors. They often are the ones taking care of him and trying ever so hard to "reach" him.... they are the ones who rejoice the most when he accomplishes even little things like staying in a sitting position or not licking something we have told him no to. He can be cuddly ( only when he chooses) and his favorite is Cate at the moment. I think he can tell she loves him unconditionally and he responds to that.

He still has a long way to go and sort of has reached a platau in some areas. We are going to begin to "stretch " those areas and see how he responds. We do not let him lick just anything anymore. We expect him to be quiet or not using his hands or feet to bang when we ask him to stop, he has to stay buckled in to his carseat, he is not allowed to scratch my computer chair- things like this.

It has been amazing to watch him change and we are still on a journey with him... but when you see him so sweetly hugging Cate or laying on our laps asleep... or hearing him laugh as he moves his body and discover life.... it is worth all of the struggles .